Saturday, April 30, 2016

The UK's most northerly Crazy Golf course has opened on Burray, one of the Orkney islands. The course is the brainchild of the island community and has received some great coverage since it opened last weekend.

A view of the most Northerly Crazy Golf course in the UK

Back in 2014 I was contacted by Dave and Pamela Woodcock from the island after they'd found my blog and it's been great to be able to give them help in getting the course built. From the photos they've sent over from the early days of building to the finished course it certainly looks unique, well constructed (one of the key factors with the 'inclement' weather conditions up there) and plays to the local heritage.

Burray's Crazy Golf course

Each of the holes on the course was designed by local schoolchildren and Orkney-based architect Paul Green. There were over 100 designs submitted and the best of these made the cut to the final 12!

It looks like a nice and unique miniature golf layout

Another nice touch is that each of the pupils at the Burray Primary School are being presented with a golf putter and ball to encourage them to use the new course.

The Old Man of Hoy - hole 8 on the Burray Crazy Golf course

The island of Burray is home to around 400 people and the course is free to play (with a small hire charge if you need to borrow a putter and ball), with all ages welcome. There is talk of competitions and local matches amongst the islanders, as well as a challenge tournament versus the rest of the world!

Hole 8 - the Old Man of Hoy - under construction in August 2015

The scorecard at the course looks great too, with each hole themed and named after famous island landmarks.

The UK's most Northerly Crazy Golf course has a very nice scorecard

The course is part of a community park development in Burray village and is open year round. The newly developed area has been funded by Orkney Islands Council, Sport Scotland Legacy 2014, Awards for All and Scottish Sea Farms, as well as additional fundraising and donations from the island community.

How tricky does this hole look! We can't wait to see and play this finished version

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Over the years I've played a fair bit of laser tag and so, while on a trip to Milton Keynes today it was great to spot that a brand new lazer tag arena was opening!

Suiting up ready to battle the Reds alongside my Green team-mates

Having spent a few hours mallratting and playing some Pool at the Hollywood Bowl my friend Cat and I were wondering what to do next. I knew there was a laser tag in the town - a sport Cat had never played before! Me and my sporting rival Marc 'The Roller' Bazeley had played a game of laser tag in the town as part of an MK sporting challenge a few Christmases ago.

A quick online search came up with the result that the team behind Laser Planet in Watford was opening a new arena on Saturday 23rd April! What an unexpected bonus it was. I've been playing the game since I was a kid, and in recent years we've tried to play a bit around the country while on our Crazy Golf travels. But in all that time I've never played at a brand new arena on its opening day. Laser Planet was so new you could smell the fresh paint as you walked up the stairs!

We received a nice welcome and found that a game amongst the staff was about to begin. We could of had the arena to ourselves for a match (something that can be great fun as I've found in contests against veteran competitors like Marc and Emily) but on this occasion we opted for a three vs. three laser tag contest.

Before battle could commence we entered the briefing room - the most hi-tech I've seen to date - after which we suited up in our vests and laser guns and entered the arena. The entrance itself is really well done - I won't spoil the surprise though. Once inside the futuristic maze we headed to our base and waited for the siren to sound (I was part of the Green team, while Cat was in the Red squad).

The 20-minute match was brilliant. The game was marshalled to ensure the rules were adhered to - no running, no physical contact, no hitting other players with the actual laser gun etc. The man in orange certainly took a few errant laser shots from the players as he was wandering around the arena.

Laser Planet in Milton Keynes gets the thumbs-up from me. Great entertainment

Our match was very close - with only five points separating the teams - but the win went to the Greens. I was the second best player on our team (yee-haa), while Cat picked up the bronze medal in the runner-up Red team.

It took a bit of a search to find the entrance to Laser Planet, but we eventually found it having walked the wrong way around the Food Centre mall. Laser Planet is next door to the old Waitrose site with stairs leading up to the first-floor venue above the New Moon Chinese buffet restaurant.

I'll definitely return and Cat really enjoyed her first laser tag experience. I look forward to future battles between us!

In the Seemingly Everlasting Laser Tag War waged between the forces of the REDS, BLUES, GREENS, and YELLOWS players in our 'Laser Tag Rankings' have taken part in Laser Battles in 'laser-war-torn' places including Birmingham, Hemel Hempstead, Bristol, London, Peterborough, Crawley, New Brighton, Cannock, Whitstable, Skegness, Rayleigh and Milton Keynes.

I've been a fan of Carhartt for years. Back in the 1990's I worked in a clothes shop called Sandman in my home town of Abingdon and I've still got (and still wear) one of the sweatshirts I bought there in 1999! It goes to show how top notch and hard wearing Carhartt stuff is. It certainly lives up to its brand promise.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

I was very interested to receive some great photos from John Snelgrove who had spotted this Minigolf (Bangolf) course while in Sweden in January.

Hellasgården Bangolf. Photo by John Snelgrove (January 2016)

The Bangolf course is at the Hellasgården in Nacka, a large nature area 5km southeast of Stockholm city. John tells me the area also has a lake that you can skate on in the winter!

The Hellasgården Bangolf course under cover of snow. Photo by John Snelgrove (January 2016)

Looking online the course looks like it's of the 'Eternit' type, but with some modifications - not least the addition of felt to the playing surface. You can see some snaps of the course on the Hellasgården Facebook pagehere and here.

While walking to Covent Garden on a day out to visit the Bond in Motion exhibition at the London Film Museum we spotted an excellent window display at the Fleet Street Clinic.

Some brand names travel better than others

One of the services offered by the private medical practice is a Travel Clinic - and they've certainly gone to town on the display showing a huge range of quirky and strange brand names on essential and interesting products from around the world.

I wouldn't fancy drinking a can of 'Sweat'!

While we were playing for the Great Britain Minigolf team in Sweden back in 2011 we spotted the Plopp and Kex brands. Eating Plopp was far more pleasant than the name suggests. The caramel version was delicious. The liquorice chocolate flavour was less tasty.

Would you snack on these chocs?

There's also a rather interestingly named brand of liquorice from Denmark that I've tried before! I'll leave you to look that one up...

The great branded scorecards and coasters at the Lost City Adventure Golf in Nottingham

A classic way to encourage repeat visits in the miniature golf business is to employ a 'Lucky Last Hole' where, as a bonus, you can try and win a free game - we've played a fair few on our travels, and won on some of them.

You're very likely to find a 'Top Hole' on an Arnold Palmer Putting Course and the Free Game Cards are great. They're well made and often draw on the history of the putting franchise.

In this day and age most courses that give out free games for Lucky Last Hole wins use a paper or card based 'token', and very few still give metal coins to winners.

Except for the Lost City Adventure Golf course in Nottingham. If you're skilled - and lucky - enough you might just win a piece of treasured Inca Gold!

When we've played as members of the general public we've not been able to master the lucky last holes at Nottingham, and when we've played there in national tour competitions we've only used one course and skipped the 18th, replaying the 1st hole instead. So unfortunately we've never won a free game there.

I did win a bronze medal at the Midlands Invitational Tournament at the course last year though

But the team at the Lost City were kind enough to send me a nice package that contained a branded pen and two magnificent tokens in a cardboard slip case. Fantastic additions to my collection.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Every year there are two quasi-official days to celebrate the great game of miniature golf*.

The first is 'National Miniature Golf Day' and takes place on the second Saturday in May. This year it will be on Saturday 14th May.

Crazy Golfing on the Arnold Palmer Putting Course in Skegness on National Miniature Golf Day 2015

The second is 'Miniature Golf Day' and is always on the 21st of September, which falls on a Wednesday in 2016.

We were in Skegness, Lincolnshire for National Miniature Golf Day last year. It's a seaside resort that is home to 110 miniature golf holes spread over ten Crazy, Mini, Adventure, Putting and Pitch & Putt courses! The most of any town in the UK.

We held the National Miniature Golf Day Tournament 2015 on the two Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf courses on North Parade, Pebble Beach Adventure Golf at the Pleasure Beach, England's first-ever Crazy Golf course on South Parade and the Gold Mine Adventure Golf course at the Pleasure Beach.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Today marks the 80th birthday of Butlin's Holiday Camps. On the 11th April 1936 Billy Butlin opened his first camp in Skegness, Lincolnshire - and the business is still going strong today.

I love the British seaside with all its quirks, eccentricity and traditional entertainment. I grew up on holidays at Butlin's holiday camps in Minehead, Bognor Regis and Ayr - and spent many summers in the 80's and 90's at the Barry Island Holiday Camp which used to be a Butlin's camp.

I spent many great holidays at Butlin's Minehead. It was nice finding these badges at Hitchin Market recently

In fact my parents met at a Butlin's! At the Clacton-on-Sea camp way back in 1975 and this year they are celebrating their ruby wedding anniversary.

It's probably in no small part because of our childhood stays at holiday camps - and all the fun they had to offer - that Emily and I have spent the last ten years travelling around the UK coast on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We also visited Butlin's Minehead (formerly Somerwest World) on one of our first holidays together in 2004.

Over the years we've built up a great collection of miniature golf postcards, and we always keep an eye out for Butlin's cards. They're such colourful and fun cards, and seeing the monorail at Minehead brings back so many happy memories.

Within our postcard collection we've got a great selection of old and new Butlin's postcards. The images on the classic John Hinde are fantastic and it's been great to receive cards from our family when they've been to the camps in recent years. The oldest Butlin's card we have was posted on the 4th June 1951. It shows the Putting Green at Butlin's Luxury Holiday Camp in Pwllheli, Wales

Look at the size of the golf ball on the tee at the Butlin's Putting Greens. The monorails were marvellous too

Last summer we visited Skegness, and while we've not been inside that camp (yet) our friend Peter Jones was coincidently there at the same time for a Five Star concert and managed to buy me a stack of great badges for my collection.

Even with the addition of a variety of obstacles over the years - and the lack of felt/carpet - the course is still recognisable as an Arnold Palmer Putting Course. A cracking type of layout and well worth a play.

The course had a classic windmill obstacle on it when we played there in 2010

The Pop's Meadow course is one of many that Christopher has visited and found to be closed. Check out the links below for more details of the courses he and his wife Nina have visited since 2011.

Friday, April 08, 2016

Love Luton was formed in 2010 to lead the City Status bid. While that was unsuccessful the campaign continued into 2012 for celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and hosting the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. The Love Luton campaign is planned to continue through 2016 and beyond.

Some of the Love Luton campaign badges amongst others in my pin collection. I've got a stack of the new round pin to give out on my travels

Emily and I have lived in Luton since we came to study in the town in the year 2000. It's certainly an interesting place. There are plenty of quirks, interesting history and fun to be had here.

You can find the source of the River Lea in Luton. It's not far from where we live in the northern bit of the town called Leagrave

Over the years we've been involved in a lot of events in the town, and we can say we've explored pretty much everything the town has had to offer and are proud to be adopted Lutonians.